Crypto industry split over Justin Drake's AI warning

Justin Drake’s warning that the crypto industry should buckle up in preparation for potential AI-assisted breakthroughs that could undermine widely used cryptography has split opinions, with some backing measures and others warning that rushed moves could create risks of their own.

On Wednesday, the Ethereum researcher said the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm could be broken by advances in classical mathematics before "q-day," when quantum computers become powerful enough to break widely used public-key cryptography. He said a worst-case breakthrough could arrive within months, not years, and recommended moving funds in a controlled way to fresh addresses that keep their public keys hidden.

In response to Drake's claims, Yehuda Lindell, Head of Cryptography at Coinbase, said that there is "no evidence whatsoever" that decades-old hardness assumptions behind elliptic-curve cryptography have been weakened.

"Making such statements without any evidence is the opposite of responsible behavior," he wrote on X. "It is the very definition of FUD."

Haeeb Qureshi took a different view, calling Drake’s warning "a very sober call." The Dragonfly managing partner said the risk was not quantum computing but AI-assisted mathematical discoveries undermining the assumptions on which elliptic-curve cryptography relies.

Meanwhile, Solana Foundation vice president Jacob Creech said Solana users face a different situation. Noting that the network uses Ed25519, he argued that a future upgrade could allow users to prove knowledge of their wallet seed using a hash-based proof, then migrate to a quantum-resistant signature scheme.

"Unlike many networks, Solana users don't need to go into "bunker mode" ahead of an accelerated quantum timeline or classical attack provided by AI," Creech wrote on X. 

Buterin's take 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also responded to Drake's claims on Wednesday, saying the industry should take AI-accelerated mathematics seriously but warning users against rushing into wallet migrations.

"It's very easy to lose funds from a misconfigured rushed upgrade, so don't rush anything," he wrote, noting botched migrations have cost him more than hacks.

Drake’s warning followed OpenAI’s publication Tuesday of hundreds of mathematical manuscripts produced by an internal model. Drake described the development as evidence that "mathematical superintelligence is upon us."